


buttons

by alpacas



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Gen, nott gets a cat: the fanfic, or really: caleb gets a cat and gives it to nott and she doesn't want a cat but it's caleb
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-12
Updated: 2019-03-12
Packaged: 2019-11-15 22:18:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18081953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alpacas/pseuds/alpacas
Summary: nott isn't exactly a 'pet'  person.





	buttons

**Author's Note:**

> **Anonymous said:  
> **  
>  A tiny kitty follows Nott around, and she decides to adopt it with calebs help, since he knows how to take care of cats?
> 
>  
> 
> HOW COULD I NOT.
> 
> this all takes place in the two weeks of downtime the gang took in zadash after the shady creek run misadventures and before heading down to nicodranas/becoming pirates. it is very slightly au. it's also very hard for me to tell with nott if she doesn't like animals or if sam just hates pets SO FUCKING MUCH that nott does, too.

They've been back in Zadash for three days. Two weeks, Fjord said to everyone. We all need the rest, after, you know — and then they all looked over at Mr. Clay, who wasn't Molly, and then no one said anything.

It's not bad, Nott thinks. Staying in one place for a while. Waking up in a bed each morning and not worrying about getting killed. Especially now that she has enough magic to make herself look normal, like an actual person.

Today, Caleb wanted to shop for spell components, bat shit and ash and special dusts, and he'd asked her very nicely if she wanted to come with him.

Nott has her wire and her fleece and said yes just to give him some company, gold if he needs it, but when they got to the shop the shelves just made her itch all over. Glass beads in barrels, feathers of all sizes and colors, sticks and stones and — just, a lot. It's bad. It's really bad. Her fingers tremble and twitch. She hadn't used magic on herself today, since she's with Caleb and doesn't know how long he wants to wander — if she gets _caught_ —

And she doesn't want Caleb to get in trouble on her account, so Nott steals just a _single_ shiny stone and slips back outside — then creeps around back to the alley. Less people there, and also, hey, always a chance for trinkets and treasures and interesting things in the garbage, especially behind a shop like this one.

She's not at it for more than a minute before she hears the cry. Not a human cry: a shrill animal _eeeu_ , a small plea for attention, followed immediately by a second and then a third. A rat?, Nott thinks, her nostrils flaring. She smells something warm blooded and living and small… pushes aside a couple of empty cartons and some papers…

A small black thing, mouth wide, needle tiny milk teeth mewing up at her. Not a rat. A baby cat.

Nott crouches down in interest. It opens its eyes feebly and does a strange un-catlike crawl at her; she reaches towards it with one finger and it tries to suckle her claw. A kitten. A baby cat.

Part of her: it's warm, it's hot and it's living. Not big but tasty. See how weak it is? One bite. All that gushing hot blood. Yum.

Part of her: it's a cat. A little baby. I don't want to eat a _baby_.

Another part, closer to the second than the first: Where is its mother? The poor thing's been abandoned, and will starve. Feral cats aren't good for anything but mousing. You can keep one in the barn, sure, but if it's a female the kittens get everywhere and everyone gets upset when they start dying. Just like this one. It'll starve within a day.

Sometimes Nott hardly knows where _those_ thoughts come from. She wakes up foggy and has to remind herself: she isn't Nott. She isn't. She's not.

"There you are, little one," Caleb says brightly, coming up behind her before she decides what to do. He sounds happy and awake with money in his pockets (she slipped him an extra ten gold, just in case) and magical things in his pouch. "What do you have there?"

"A little cat," Nott says dismissively, deciding: it's a shame, but this guy's doomed. Oh well. In farms and cities and in the world, things never change. As soon as she says it she realizes what a fucking mistake it was.

"A cat?" Caleb comes the rest of the way over and she's almost knocked over in his haste to look at the poor thing. His eyes shine, he looks delighted, muttering something in Zemnian she's pretty sure means _he's so little_ — she definitely hears _Klein_ , a word Nott is always alert for since it can mean her — and his eyes are shining and he looks so _pleased_ , and normally this would thrill Nott, too, except _oh_ , now he's going to want to keep it.

"Yes, but he's been abandoned —" Aaaand Caleb has scooped the kitten up in his gloved hands, the little thing fitting easily on his palm, mewing confusedly. Caleb sits back on his haunches, dazed with joy. Frumpkin appears out of nowhere, sniffing around Caleb's legs curiously.

Nott _sighs._

"What happened to you, my friend?" Caleb coos at the kitten. "How did you get lost? Oh — you're hurt, aren't you?"

Nott peeks up; Caleb is turning the struggling kitten over. "Look, he is missing a leg," Caleb says, and Nott can see it: the kitten has three normal legs and a tail, but the fourth, the right back foot, ends at the knee. There is no blood, no sign of injury.

"He was born deformed. He's doomed," Nott says. "Can I eat him?"

"Nott!" Caleb says, scandalized.

"I'm just kidding," she says grumpily. The kitten mews and squirms around and Caleb lowers him to Frumpkin's level. His familiar sniffs at the other cat, then starts to purr. The kitten calms. "Caleb, we're _traveling roving adventurers_ now. We can't have _pets_. That would be reckless and irresponsible."

Caleb is clearly not listening.

Nott sighs as loudly as she possibly can.

 

 

 

 

Back at the inn, Caleb removes the kitten from his pocket, places it gently on the bed, and then practically runs downstairs to find it some milk. He leaves Frumpkin to snuggle up to the kitten, lick it and comfort it and stand guard as Nott sits on the other side of the bed and, mostly, glowers.

Caleb is going to want to keep this cat, and then Jester will find out, and then Beau, and Nott can _probably_ count on Fjord to take her side on this, but then she'd have to tell Caleb no…

Energized by Frumpkin's care and the warmth of Caleb's coat, the kitten begins to investigate the bed it finds itself on. It has an odd, hopping walk, sometimes half crawling, but moves around surprisingly well. It's solid black, this cat, with yellow eyes and a notched ear. "Someone really didn't like you much, huh?" Nott murmurs.

The kitten mews at the sound, hopping towards her. Frumpkin gives Nott a look she interprets as judgmental. "Caleb, I'm not eating it," she says, just in case. The kitten comes close and she lets it look around her. "You're stupid, aren't you?" she asks it. "I'm a goblin. Goblins eat cats. Don't you have any survival instincts? No wonder you were abandoned by your momma." Most animals don't care for Nott. They smell her species on her, see right past her mask and hood to her predator's teeth.

She moves her hand towards it, and the kitten mews and hops back towards Frumpkin. Hmph. Nott rests her chin on her knees and watches with her own yellow eyes.

Caleb returns with a full pitcher of milk. "I didn't eat it," Nott announces again.

"No, of course not, look at you!" Caleb says happily, and Nott tries to not be jealous of a stupid three legged kitten. "Here you are, little one, here is some milk, and for you as well Frumpkin, of course…"

"You could drown it in a pitcher that size," Nott says resentfully.

Caleb gives her a wounded look and she puts her chin back on her knees. He pours out two saucers of milk for the cats, placing them on the floor, and carefully picks up the kitten to show it where its lunch is. It begins to drink happily.

"Little one," Caleb says, and this time he does mean Nott, "I was thinking, perhaps you could take care of this cat?"

"Oh, no," Nott says. "Nope, if you want a cat, it's your responsibility. I'm not going to take care of it for you. I'm not going to feed it and pick up its shit. You're old enough to take care of your own pets."

"No, that is not what I meant. I meant that perhaps you could _have_ this cat as your own. As _your_ pet."

"I don't want a pet," Nott says, looking down at the cats drinking milk.

"Cats are wonderful animals. They are affectionate and loyal, despite what people say. This one will come to love you unconditionally and I think you would come to like it, she will sit with you and sleep at your side and purr and do bleps and be a true companion…"

And he kind of carries on for a bit, going on about how great pet cats are, and Nott stops listening and thinks: _sure, of course. You think a stupid three-legged cat with a torn up ear is a good match for your goblin buddy_. Not the cat's fault it was born legless, but talk about adding insult to injury. Imagine it talking to the other cats: yeah, I belong to a _goblin_. It's probably saving me for a midnight snack.

"You said her," she says, interrupting Caleb's Cat Dissertation.

"Ah, yes, she is a female, I checked just now, you can tell by the shape of the, erhm, the butthole, actually."

"How do you even know…" Nott waves her hand. "Forget it. I don't want a cat."

"You might enjoy having someone to take care of, the feeling of someone… even just a cat… relying upon you," Caleb says carefully, and Nott senses all kinds of ulterior motives —

And she thinks about a little house and a little boy, just starting to really talk, running all over the place, running to her when she calls, looking for her whenever she leaves the room…

And now she can't fucking _breathe_ , thanks Caleb. "I thought you relied on me. I thought we relied on each other," she says to her knees.

"Of course we do," Caleb says, immediately apologetic. "It's just that I think you — cats are really wonderful. And I already named her for you, her name is Buttons."

 

 

 

 

Although Frumpkin is a male cat and a fey creature, Buttons hops behind him as her new mother, mewing for attention all the while. That night, Nott climbs into bed and uses Caleb's calves as a pillow as always, only for Caleb to send Frumpkin to curl up with _her_ , and Buttons at his heel.

The kitten ends up balled in the crock of Nott's neck, and she grumbles loud enough to be sure Caleb hears it. She's pretty sure he laughs at her. Both of the cats purr against her, warm and fluffy and making her neck sweat.

 

 

 

 

Jester and Beau _love_ Buttons. They coo over her every mew and hop, applaud as she struggles with her jumping, using her forelegs to scrabble up onto a chair: she's scrappy, Nott notes with growing approval, despite her better judgement. Nott likes scrappy. Caleb presides over the whole thing with an air of a proud father. Even the innkeeper is charmed by Nott's stupid three legged cat, giving them bowls of milk on the house to keep Buttons fed and growing.

"We're only in Zadash for another week," Nott reminds them one morning, as Jester and Beau are cooing over Buttons as she chases her namesake as they roll one across the floor. "We can't take her to Nicodranas with us." And then she snatches up the button for good measure, since it's actually one of hers.

Buttons comes over, pouncing at her fingers, where she knows her toy is hiding. "But _Nott_ ," Jester pleads, "she's so little, she's so sweet."

"You want her to get eaten by ogres? Even for me she's a one-bite snack!" Nott says, pitching the button back across the floor for Buttons to scamper after and bat about with her paws.

"I'm with Nott," Fjord yells from all the way across the room; he's given them all a wide berth all day. Fey cats set off his allergies a little, but it turns out real ones leave him blotchy and sniffly and pretty fucking gross. "We're _not_ taking it with us. Find it —"

"HER," Jester, Beau, and Nott all yell —

"Find _her_ a nice kid or something, Nott, you see reason on this, don't you?"

"I never wanted a pet in the first place," Nott sniffs. She trots over and picks up her button and the kitten, who immediately starts purring in her arms.

 

 

 

 

Now when they sleep, Frumpkin curls up by Caleb's elbow, Nott stretches out on his other side, and Buttons sleeps in a tight black ball on her chest. And then she has to wake up really early to feed her, and also so that Caleb doesn't wake up first and just get really fucking smug about it.

Which he does either way.

"You are quite fond of Buttons, now, I see," Caleb says one evening, taking a quick break from copying one of his new spells to look smugly over at the bed, where Nott is teasing Buttons with a bit of string.

"I'm not _fond_ of her, I'm helping her develop her back leg strength, look at her," Nott says, as Buttons briefly balances on _just one leg_ to reach for the string, what a fucking scrappy-ass cat this is, what an icon, Nott has never seen a cat this amazing before. "You know, Butts here —"

"Buttons —"

"Butts is pretty tough. Not every cat can have a fucked up ear and leg and be as smart as this one is. Frumpkin's smart but he's a _fey_ , he doesn't count, Butts is much smarter."

"Ah, no, that is where you are wrong, Buttons is a very good cat, I will grant you, but Frumpkin is still the superior —"

It goes on like this for a while.

 

 

 

 

Twelve days in Zadash, and Buttons's fur is shiny and thick and she's seemed to almost double in size: still a kitten, still easily carried in one of Nott's many pockets, but quicker moving and confident, hopping and clawing onto any damn raised platform her heart desires.

The thing is, they really are leaving soon. Two weeks of rest was great, but everyone is starting to feel restless. Fjord, Beau, and Jester are growing more antsy by the day. Caleb, too, is getting extra careful with his alarm spells and walking around Zadash; they've never stayed in one place so long before, even when it was just the two of them. Even Mr. Clay seems a little over being in a city, and Nott doesn't know him too well yet, but _calm_ seems like kind of his thing.

It's time for the Mighty Nein to move on.

Which means it's time to say goodbye to Buttons.

Caleb and Jester both keep hinting they should, of course, take the cat with them on their journeys, and Nott almost sees their point by now — if Buttons was like, a person, she'd be a fucking rogue, just like Nott. All scrappy and cool and beating shit up. But Buttons is still a _cat_ , a _pet_ , and Nott isn't stupid. The Mighty Nein is no place for pets. There is an actual and real chance they could all be eaten by ogres.

Still.

The innkeeper, finding out about the problem, had offered to adopt Buttons herself. Inns tend to have problems with mice, and she's fond of the kitten, she'd be happy to take her and take good care of her. It's not a bad offer. This inn is the only real home Buttons has ever known, and she'd be fat and happy here, hopping up and down the stairs and rubbing up against the patrons.

Except what if there's a mean patron who kicks her or is mean to her or something? And Nott will be way off in fucking Nicodranas, unable to kick that guy's ass?

She rolls a button around the floor for the kitten to chase after, forlornly watching Buttons bat it around, pounce, be adorable, etc.

Actually, Nott would like to stay at the inn, too. The others may be feeling restless, but she feels comfortable and almost _safe_. Waking up every day with her friends around her, with food to eat, in a warm bed. Sure, the city is dangerous for a goblin, but no worse than anywhere else, and there have been moments, these past weeks, where sometimes she's almost been able to pretend…

Like that afternoon in the cafe…

 _Nott_ could catch the inn's mice and rats and be safe and warm and happy. Nott _and_ Buttons. But she doesn't take the dream too seriously. She's not leaving Caleb, not ever, and doesn't want to say goodbye to the others. It's not _too_ too awful, traveling with everyone. Except for when people die. Except for having to bury Molly.

"I want to go _home_ ," Nott whispers to Buttons, who has come back over to her, purring and rubbing at her fingers. She scratches the kitten's ear the way Buttons likes. Nott had actually almost asked Caleb if they could visit Felderwin — that's how crazy she's getting, how delusional two weeks of sleeping in a bed have made her — before chickening out.

Buttons rolls onto her back, exposing her soft belly and pawing at Nott's fingers when she rubs the fur, and Nott suddenly has an idea.

 

 

 

 

The day they pack up to leave Zadash, Nott wakes up curled up at Caleb's side, sans-kitten. He notices at once, of course. "Where's Buttons?"

"Ate her," Nott says dismissively, yawning and pulling on her cloak. Caleb looks aghast. Frumpkin's fur puffs all up. "I didn't _eat_ her, I gave her away last night."

"To Frau Innkeeper?" Caleb asks, relieved and disappointed in turns.

"No… I found some random family, I was walking around looking for someone nice, you know, with Butts, and anyway I found one and gave her to them. They had a kid to play with her." Nott practiced saying it, but it still comes out hard, her voice tight: she doesn't know how to begin to explain it. Family matters, kids are the ones who need pets, not _her_ , but family doesn't matter to _goblins_.

"I see," Caleb says, disappointed. "I had hoped to say goodbye…"

"She's just a _cat_ ," Nott says tightly. "I'm already over it."

"Nott, she was not just a cat. She was, she _is_ , a very good cat. One of, probably in the top three of cats I have met in my life, after Frumpkin of course…"

"She's a lot smarter than Frumpkin, she's a real cat, you know…"

"…and more importantly, she is _your_ cat," Caleb says gently, putting his hand on her shoulder.

"…Only for a week and a half," Nott says, looking away. "I'm over it. Let's go, come on," and she sniffles only once, but Caleb is nice enough to pretend he doesn't notice.

 

 

 

 

Months pass.

When they do finally visit Felderwin, it is far, far worse than Nott had ever imagined, but even with everyone now knowing she's a liar, she's a faker, she's — _she's_ , they still come with her, still rush into the tunnels, still say right away _we're going to rescue Yeza_.

Nott isn't sure how she landed a bunch of friends. A bunch of friends like _this_. Even if Jester won't stop being a _terrible pet owner_ , even after Nott's excellent example back in Zadash. She loves them all. A fucking lot.

One night in the tunnels, they're chit-chatting over a bland dinner, and Caleb suddenly looks up and says, looking right at her: "Your son."

"Yeah?" she manages. It's the first time any of the Mighty Nein have mentioned Luke since Felderwin and she doesn't at all know how to deal with it: her stomach goes really fucking tight, because she's been expecting — something, some kind of _hey Nott you fucking liar_ accusation, some falling out, Caleb deciding they're not best friends anymore. She knows she kind of has it coming, but of course she's still dreading it.

"He had a _cat_ ," Caleb says, all accusatory. "When he came to the door."

Beau is looking over at him like he is both crazy and carrying a bomb set to explode.

"With everything happening I did not say anything, of course, but the cat had only three legs," Caleb continues, and Jester actually gasps.

"That was _Buttons_?"

There'd only been a second, of course: Edith calling Luke over, Luke with the half-grown cat in his arms, squirming and leaping out of his grasp. Nott had hardly noticed her herself, of course. Really hadn't cared at all. Not about some stupid cat.

"I told you. I told you I gave her to a nice family," Nott says, all her tension draining from her body, even smiling a tiny bit. "Of course I did."

Caleb looks back down at his bland dinner, matching her smile.


End file.
